Time to move on, it was a fabulous house to live in...

Here's how I described my house in the advertisement when I put it up for sale in 2009.

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I've decided to sell my gorgeous house and garden in Creswick, Victoria. I’ve been here for nine years, and it’s been a wonderfully nourishing and healing place, but I feel it’s time for a big change.

The house is a 3 bedroom weatherboard cottage (or 2 bedrooms and a study), in one of the best streets in Creswick.

It’s on a hill and has views from the large windows in the front rooms -- including from the big light-filled room currently used as a study -- and from the backyard, which is terraced and landscaped so that there are lots of different sitting spots and areas and paths (children love it).

And there’s room to build a studio or workshed (STCA) up on one of the layers that’s been recently cut and levelled, or you could turn it into a great entertainment area with an outdoor kitchen or whatever you like.

Creswick is an hour and 20 mins from Melbourne, with easy access to a University city (Ballarat is 15 mins away) but with all the benefits of living in a small friendly country town.

It also has easy access to one of the best alternative and tourist towns in Victoria (Daylesford - 25 mins away).

Creswick has got a fantastic primary school, a good supermarket, chemist, hardware, library... there are some great walking tracks and picnic areas in Slatey Creek forest, around St George’s Lake, the Koala Park, and Calambeen Park.

And I can supply you with a list of excellent tradespeople if you ever need them.

Parts of the house are over 100 years old -- the kitchen and back part seems to be an original miners cottage, and the front appears to have been added in the 1920s.

It has many original features such as dark wooden panelling in the loungeroom and back hall, and dado in the kitchen, and ornate ceilings.

The wooden floors have been oiled and polished (not polyeurethene) and the rooms painted with non-toxic paints. So it all has a very good feel about it.

The kitchen has been recently revamped with a recycled wooden bench with modern sink and taps.

There are new invisiguard steel mesh security screens on back and front, so you can look out and watch the rosellas in the birdbath and also safely leave the doors open all night in summer to get the cool breezes that usually start to come in around 7-8 pm.

For winter there is a Rinnai energy-saver natural gas heater or a Ned Kelly wood combustion fire (depending on your mood).

There’s a small gal tank for delicious drinking water and room to install more tanks for the garden around the house, or up the back so they can gravity feed down to your plants. There's also a greywater pump set up.

The wiring and plumbing have been renewed. And the house is very solid.

There are two verandahs, and a stunning garden -- vegie patch, potting shed (made from recycled materials), an old original shed (made from gum saplings and corrugated iron), lots of herbs, an asparagus patch, fruit trees ((3 x hazels, peach, 2 x nectarines, one half apricot/half nect, 2 x mulberries, 2 x apples, 3 x figs, loquat, almond, grape, boysenberry, red currant and a pomegranate - some young, some established), lots of rocks and groundcovers, a chamomile lawn, 3 gorgeous magnolias, native trees along the side, and some old gums up the back.

The house has a secluded feel when you’re inside or in the garden, but it’s close to everything (walking distance to the town) and has great neighbours.

The hard work has been done in the house and garden, but there’s still room to add to it all and make it perfect, and space to add an entertainment area/outdoor kitchen etc or to build a studio (STCA).

If you think this could be your house and would like to know more, please send a message to:
beth (@) bethspencer (dot) com

(ie just write this out as a normal email address - I have to spell it out like this to avoid spam!)

or telephone me at (03) 5345 1397 or 0419 580 382.

cheers,
Beth